, lindsay graham and kelly ayotte. mccain now willing to hear her side of the story. >> i will be glad to meet with her and listen to her positions and justification for her comments but i'm -- i'm very unhappy with her performance. >> reporter: graham is also looking forward to hearing from rice. >> there will be a lot of questions asked of her about this event and others. >> reporter: ayotte told cnn that rice's staff contacted her about the meeting. she believes it will focus on rice's, quote, representations of what happened at benghazi. rice is considered a top pick to replace secretary of state hillary clinton who said she will leave her post when a replacement is found. mccain, graham and ayotte all said they would block any effort to advance rice if she is nominated. i'm ed payne, reporting. >> later this week rice will meet with acting cia director mike morrell as well as senator susan collins of maine the top republican on the homeland security committee. >>> more republicans say the looming "fiscal cliff" is forcing them to reconsider their no tax pledges. some are now

. (laughter) so susan rice met yesterday with senators mccain, graham and ayotte to clear the air. how did that go? >> ambassador rice i think does not do justice to the reality at the time and in hindsight clearly was completely wrong. >> we are significantly troubled by many of the answers that we got and some that we didn't get concerning evidence that was overwhelming leading up to the attack on our consulate. >> jon: here's the deal: they may be right. though on the scale of public misstatements, rice's comments seem to fall more for the embarrassing evidence of institutional disorganization end of the scale. (laughter) but here's the thing: these two don't get to be the ones who self-righteously get angry about this. they're upset she may have passed bad intel, wittingly or unwittingly to the american people. remember these two from a decade ago? >> saddam hussein continues to acquire, amass, and improve on his arsenal of weapons of mass destruction. he continues to acquire -- attempt to acquire a nuclear weapon. these are all well-known facts. >> let's act now to get rid of a tyrant

director mike morrell met with john mccain, lindsey graham and kelly ayotte over what rice knew the in the days after the deadly consulate attack in benghazi. all three claim to be more troubled after this meeting. >> we're significantly troubled by many of the answers that we got and some that we didn't get. >> bottom line, i'm more disturbed now than i was before that the 16th september explanation about how four americans died by ambassador rice, i think, does not do justice to the reality at the time. >> clearly the impression that was begin, the information begin to the american people was wrong. in fact, ambassador rice said today, absolutely, it was wrong. >> and within the past hour the white house once again defended ambassador rice. >> focus on some might say obsession made on comments made on sunday shows seems, to me, and to many, to be misplaced. >> and the ambassador herself made this statement only a short time ago. it read in part, quote, i appreciated the opportunity to discuss these issues directly and structurive wi them. the administration remains committed to wo

confirmation battle. i asked kelly ayotte yesterday, she said, no, it was on the substance. have we had others who have gone on sunday television talk shows, made mistakes and not punished as severely as susan rice? >> i think there is a double standard, not necessarily with punishment for the talk shows, because i don't think this is about comments that were basically right that she made on sunday talk shows. i think this is about a lot of other things including a personality that even susan rice's friends say can be abrasive, sharp elbowed. all sorts of things that i think it's easier for men to get away with even men in diplomatic jobs, than for women. and i think women are in an odd role those days. women in the senate, i'm going to be writing about this for a column in tomorrow's paper, the women in the senate talk about how women are terrific at being collegial and getting things done and learning how to cooperate. if you're a woman like susan rice who is not necessarily in that kind of female nurturer collegial role but sort of elbows out, tough player, i think you actually g

no love loss between senators graham, mccain and ayotte. vis-a-vis the u.s./u.n. ambassador. were you surprised susan collins went into a new line of attacks specifically indicting susan rice in the kenyan embassy attacks in the late '90 snz. >> yes. it was surprising. from folks i spoke to on capitol hill involved in national security issues did not see susan collins going into that direction. susan collins is a moderate republican, not one to be known to be an obstructionist in any capacity. she was one of the primary sponsors of don't ask, don't tell repeal when that went through last year. so it's interesting to see susan colin goss on this line of attack saying she doesn't want to see the u.n. ambassador be a political spokesperson like susan rice was on the sunday shows. also opening up the new line of attacks when susan rice was in charge during the attacks in africa. that is something to a chill observer seems like okay, susan collins has done her research, that would be brought up in a confirmation hearing specifically saying why did you fail the country supposedly back i

and kelly ayotte not so much. >> we are significantly troubled by many of the answers that we got and some that we didn't get. bottom line, i'm more disturbed now than i was before. >> i want to say i'm more troubled today, knowing, having met with the acting director of the cia and ambassador rice. >> senator ayotte seized on one of the headlines from the meeting that ams about dor rice apparently admitted she was wrong. >> clearly the impression that was given, the information given to the american people, was wrong. in fact, ambassador rice said today absolutely it was wrong and that's troubling to me as well why she wouldn't have asked i'm the person that doesn't know anything about this and going on every show. >> richard wolffe, reader of tea leaves that you are. >> yes. >> how much of this is because president obama would like to see susan rice as his secretary of state? >> well, let's say 50% and -- >> you're putting it at a fair 50. >> 50% and the other 50% susan rice is a proxy for this president. i've said it again and will say it again there has been a witch hunt for e

initial account was wrong because: senator kelly ayotte, republican of new hampshire, says rice should have known better. >> but one of her responsibilities as ambassador to the u.n. she receives daily intelligence briefings and certainly confirmed today that she had received the briefing-- the briefings leading up to this that were on a classified basis. >> reporter: the white house hasn't said when or if rice will get the nomination. but in a news conference two weeks ago, mr. obama seemed to be preparing for a fight. >> if senator john mccain and senator graham and others want to go after somebody they should go after me. and i'm happy to have that discussion with them. >> reporter: senator ayotte said she would be willing to put a hold on a rice nomination which, under senate rules, means it would likely never come up for approval and effectively be dead. scott? >> pelley: margaret, thank you. who is susan rice? she held several positions in the collation on the national security council as an expert on african affairs and then as assistant secretary of state. rice was confi

. >> i would just ask the president to step back. >> senate republican kelly ayotte, who has threatened to block a rice nomination, joins us ahead. and powerball fever sweeping the nation. the jackpot now jumps to $500 million. the second highest in lottery history. what would you do with your winning ticket. >> i would take my entire family on a cruise around the world. >> a sports car for me. >> aston martin. >> i'll pinch myself. >> i would pinch myself too. good day, i'm andrea mitchell live in washington. thanks for joining us. you can bet this is not the way mitt romney had hoped to get to the white house. instead of measuring the drapes in the oval office he'll be the president's guest for lunch. their first meeting since that last debate. joining me now for our daily fix, chris cizilla, msnbc contributor and managing editor of post politics.com and from "usa today" susan page. what do you think is on the menu? >> some people on twitter when i tweeted out suggest crow might be served. look, this is, i think, there's no press coverage. this is not closed press. there is no press c

mccain and kelly ayotte. >> how did that go? >> it didn't go well. after they accused of ambassador of misleading the country, rice reiterated that she relied on faulty talking points from the intelligence community. but the senators still were not satisfied. >> we are significantly troubled pie ma by many of the answers that we got and some that we didn't get. it is clear that the information that she gave the american people was incorrect. >> bottom line, i'm more disturbed now than i was before. if you didn't know what happened, just say you don't know what happened. people can push you to give explanations and you can say i don't want to give bad information. >> i'm more troubled today knowing having met with the acting director of the cia and ambassador rice. clearly the impression that was given, the forgiven to the american people, was wrong. ambassador rice said today absolutely it was wrong.forgive american people, was wrong. ambassador rice said today absolutely it was wrong. >> ambassador rice wasn't able to persuade -- >> good morning, mika. go ahead. i know. i'm tired.

doing with ayotte and graham and mccain coming out to talk about the fact that they're meeting with ambassador rice leaves them scratching their heads and with more questions? of course people want more answers to what happened in benghazi, but it's not up to ambassador rice. she's not fronting the investigation. >> no, but she's been part of that team that went on those sunday shows to talk act those issues to say it was a video that caused this. whether it was the talking points or the intelligence, she's the one in front of the tv cameras that said this. this is an audition to be the country's top diplomat. she's going into a hostile group, we would want her to have a better relationship after, not worse. she had three senators she knew she wasn't in a great relationship with. they seemed to be more open to her over the weekend. she went into a meeting and made it worse. regardless of what you think about susan rice -- >> were they really going to listen to her and come out and be, like, oh, god, we love susan rice now? i don't think that was ever going to be the backside of that

lindsay graham and kelly ayotte could hardly have gone worse. they were more inflamed about rice's early public comments about the benghazi, libya attack than they had been before that meeting. cnn's dana bash has been watching all of this prenomination confrontation drama and joins us now to talk about this. i know you're trying to wrangle an interview and make sure you catch the senators as they emerge from the meetings. dana, it might sound to some as though some of the critics of ambassador rice feel differently about what they're criticizing. they don't all seem to be in lock step or at least have the same complaints. >> reporter: that's true. no question that there are different levels of issues that senators are upset about. i have to tell you the reason i'm on the phone now is because i'm waiting for a very important meeting that susan rice is having as we speak to wrap up and that is with senator susan collins. why is it important? because if she is nominated to be secretary of state and assuming that the republicans she met with yesterday stand by their desire to block her nomi

that and hearing you is very interesting because we hear senator graham and ayotte say they're going to put a hold on ambassador rice if, in fact, she's nominated to be the secretary of state, they're going to put a hold on her, even though there's no direct responsibility, direct knowledge, and no accusation of direct knowledge by her on any of these matters, and she's saying what, in effect, she was told to say by the intelligence community. yet we're told that democrats are ready to fight. a democratic aide tells nbc news, this is getting people's back up. the general sense of mood is this is ridiculous. she's obviously qualified. no one on our side thinks there's any substance whatsoever to the republican criticisms. the aide also questioned whether republicans, besides mccain, graham and ayotte would think this was a smart fight to pick. after all, it would be a high-profile fight with a qualified african-american woman. >> and she's not just qualified. she is supremely well qualified. she has tremendous experience. she's been enormously successful with her work at the u.n. we w

smooth it over with senators mccain, ayotte and graham who criticized her original comments on the deadly benghazi attacks. i picture the conversation between the president and rice going like this. we want you as secretary of state, so go make nice. answer their questions so they stop attacking you and threatening to block your possible nomination. yeah, so how did that work out? >> we are significantly troubled by many of the answers that we got and some that we didn't get. it is clear that the information that she gave the american public was incorrect. >> bottom line, i'm more disturbed now than i was before with a little bit of inquiry and curiosity, i think it would be pretty clear that to explain this episode as related to a video that created a mob that turned into a riot was far afield. if you can do nothing but give bad information, isn't it better to give no information at all? >> i'm more troubled today. just to be clear, when you have a position where you're ambassador to the united nations, you go well beyond unclassified talking points in your daily preparation and r

doug mentioned, while senators graham, ayotte and mccain are focused on what susan rice, ambassador rice said on the sunday talk shows, they are not asking any questions at all about the real questions about security there at the consulate in benghazi. that's where their interest and focus and ire should be pointed. not at a u.n. ambassador who went on the sunday talk shows as a spokesperson for the administration giving, imparting the information she was given by the intelligence community. >> and susan, for those just joining us. this happened moments ago in the last hour. i want to remind everyone what the three senators had to say. take a look. >> we are significantly troubled by many of the answers that we got and some that we didn't get. >> bottom line, i'm more disturbed now than i was before that the 16 september explanation about how four americans died in benghazi, libya, by ambassador rice, i think, does not do justice to the reality at the time. >> clearly the impression that was given, the information given to the american people was wrong, in fact, ambassador rice said

john mccain, lindsey graham and kelly ayotte tried to drive a stake through rice's nomination chances, susan colins and bob corker rose up out of the ground to sink they're teeth into her. "the washington post" today reports a white house official and democratic aides say they think rice could win senate confirmation from the top diplomatic job if obama nominated her. however the piece note her confirmation could come at a high political cost as lawmakers negotiate a deal on taxes and entitlement reform. and nbc news reports the president has yet to make up his mind over whether he will select rice or massachusetts senator, john kerry. but they say the clock is ticking and a nominee might be announced as early as next week. wow. that's -- i mean that's a tease, huh? but here's the question. here's my question. ryan, i will ask you this first. are republicans going to spend the political capital they must to dead the susan rice nomination? i'll read from the hilling privately come republicans prefer to avoid a bitter political fight over rice, an african-american woman viewed as compet

john mccain, lindsay graham, and kelly ayott, all had vowed to block her nomination after what she said about the deadly attack on americans on n benghazi, libya. here's what graham said moments ago when the meeting came to a close. >> if you don't know what happened, just say you don't know what happened. people can push you to give explanations and you can say i don't want to give bad information. here's what i can tell you -- the american people got bad information on 16, september. they got bad information from president obama days after. and the question is should they have been giving the information at all. if you can do nothing but give bad information, isn't it better to give no information at all? >> ah. let's go straight to cnn's dana bash. so before we heard that pretty explosive news conference, it seemed as though there was a bit of a softening of some of the gop's opposition to ms. rice's moving up in the president's cabinet. now after hearing that, i need to get some clarity if i can from you about whether the criticism is about ms. rice and what she delivered to th

that initial ferocious opposition by lindsey graham and kelly ayotte and john mccain, a big press conference and really took a stance. the administration decides to send her up to try to repair things. they come out of the meeting, she obviously didn't graduate from any washington charm school, because even kelly ayotte it looked like they had just lost their best friend after that meeting. they were not happy. then there is another round of meetings and cork eri corker is saying he should withdraw the nomination. megyn: he said she would make a better dnc chair, that is debbie wasserman schultz job. >> it seems like a classic obama set up of the republicans. this is a way to bring up the whole war on women, meaning that republicans really don't understand women, look they don't have any female chairmen of their committees on capitol hill. they didn't get any of the female vote, and they just don't get it. they are doing this to this poor woman, and she is a great person and a great public servant. to me it seems like there is a political reason for continuing to, you know, trot h

kelly ayotte announced they were more troubled than ever. >> i continue to be troubled by the fact that the u.n. ambassador decided to play what was essentially a political role at the height of a contentious presidential election campaign. >> eliot: but president obama stood up for rice today during his first post-election cabinet meeting when asked about the ambassador's reception on the hill. >> obama: sue an rice is extraordinary. couldn't be prouder of the job she's done at the usun. >> joining me now is pj crowley who served under both presidents clinton and obama. he's now a professor at george washington university. thanks for your wisdom. >> hi, eliot. >> eliot: the reception that ambassador rice is getting on the hill is almost unprecedented unprecedented. i don't remember an u.s. diplomat being roughed up this way, is there a historical metaphor for this? >> not recently. i think in terms of the senate interfering, if you want to say that, you have to go back to john tower in 1989. i mean, politics is a contact sport, eliot. you know that as well as anybody. >> eliot: ye

susan rice, she is meeting with senators mccain, graham, and ayott. do you think she has explaining to do with what she said about benghazi? and would you support her if she is nominated for secretary of state? >> she's not yet been nominated. so i'm going to look carefully at her credentials, which i think qualify her very well to be nominated. i think she's done a very good job at the united nations. i do think she's explained that what she said about benghazi was the intelligence that she was given. and she'll have an opportunity as she meets with senators to further explain that position. >> do you think they're open to giving her a fair hearing? because some pretty tough things have been said about her. >> well, it's unfortunate that much of that discussion has gotten so personal. she does need to get a fair hearing. i'm hopeful senator mccain is a patriot, i think he'll give her a fair hearing. i'm certain my colleague from new hampshire, and of lindsey graham. so i do believe that it's in the country's interest to give her a fair hearing and to let her explain the situation,

did, from top gop lawmakers including these three senators, mccain, graham and ayotte. >> don't we all have the responsibility before we go out and talk to the american people on all five sunday morning shows for verifying those facts are true? >> the most basic information about what happened on the night of the attack, and what survivors had to say after the attack is not being provided and we'll talk more about that. bill: so you wonder then whether or not they will get the answers they're looking for. whether or not some of these questions will lead to even more questions. they will sit down in about 20 minutes from now. kelly wright is live in washington there. kelly, you're covering this morning. what is the expectation from this meeting on the hill? >> reporter: the expectations bill, they will get down to the bottom of this. at least that's what they will try to do. that is the most fundamental thing to these republican senators. they want to find out exactly what susan rice knew, before, during and after that attack. she has emerged, by the way as a frontrunner and possibl

more questions and concerns about that night in benghazi. here is senator ayotte. >> we know from previous information that the class need talking points said clearly that al-qaida -- individuals associated with al-qaida, or with ties to al-qaida r- were involved in the attack. that was then omitted from the unclassified talking points. she had reviewed the classified talking points. when you look at what she said cbs, face the nation, also on "meet the press," not only was that piece omitted, also she said that al-qaida was decimated. martha: this is a new report that claims that benghazi was not the only al-qaida-linked terror attack on september 11th. were some of those other attacks al-qaida inspired or linked. that is a big tor story we are pursuing. we are joined by peter king. chairman of the homeland community. good to see you. >> good to be with you. martha: if susan rice is indeed considered for secretary of state we need to know where she stands on the issue of al-qaida and whether or not she believes that al-qaida is still a threat, is a growing threat. she says they w

susan rice have been susan collins, good old john mccain and kelly ayotte of new hampshire. they have suggested that they would put an individual hold on a potential susan rice nomination. susan collins is saying that john kerry would be much better for that job. i think it is worth noting now that we are already hip deep in this conspiracy theory of mine that this trio of republican senators have been united behind another cause in the really recent past. when scott brown was running for re-election against elizabeth warren this past fall, he did pretty much everything in his power to convince the citizens that he wasn't really a republican, that that little "r" next to his name just stood for really nice guy. it doesn't stand for republican. it stands for reformer or bipartisan. >> listen, i'm the second bipartisan in the united states senate. i was recently named as the least partisan senator. we need to sit down in a room in a bipartisan manner. the only way we are going to get it done is to work together in a truly bipartisan manner. >> he ran as far as he could from the republic

the administration. one suspects that senators graham and mccain and ayotte have other reasons for opposing her and are using this as an excuse but it's fairly flimsy because while there are legitimate questions to be asked about what happened in benghazi -- >> but dana, hang on a second. if you have a problem with susan rice, let her be nominated, challenge her, and go through due process. why do this on the basis of intelligence that she had received that's consistent with the information that she was given by the cia? >> not only is it illogical, it is counterproductive because they're putting the president in a position of saying he's going to nominate her if he wasn't before because now he's not going to look like he's caving in or backing down. so they're going to achieve the exact opposite of what they're purporting to want. >> absolutely astonishing. goldie, conservatives, as we know, are attacking ambassador rice for admitting that the initial intelligence was wrong in one respect, that there was no process in benghazi, but she's admitted that the intelligence has evolved.

kelly ayotte said they are more concerned than before she came up to capitol hill to offer her explanation, and her changing story, not just her changing story but that of the administration. we are awaiting press secretary jay karen see and a comment on today's meeting. the conventional wisdom is they sent her up there to smooth over the waters before president obama nominates her. but they did not take miss rice's answers too well. >> i want to say i'm more troubled today knowing, having met with the acting director of the cia and ambassador rice, because it is certainly clear from the beginning that we knew that those with ties to al-qaida were involved in the attack on the embassy, and clearly the impression that was given and the information given to the american people was wrong. megyn: senator kelly ae ayotte will join us live next hour. this will be her first public interview since she sat down with miss rice this morning. what exactly did ambassador rice say behind closed doors? why is senator yea a yeah at anayotte and the other two senators so fired up. this was supp

met with three top republicans about libya. jenna: john mccain, lindsey graham, and kelly ayotte criticized explanations rice given in the past and obviously today and on the attack in benghazi the meeting doesn't appear to help smooth away for rice's widely anticipated nomination as secretary of state. here is senator ayotte moments ago ago. >> when you have a position where your ambassador to the united nations you go well beyond unclassified talking points in your daily preparations and responsibilities for that job and that is troubling to me. jenna: kelly wright, live in washington with more. kelly, the three senators just held the news briefing which we played a little bit from kelly ayotte. tell us generally what was their response? what sort of reaction they had to what they heard inside that closed-door meeting? >> reporter: let's stay on focus on that because that is really telling. each senator saw the tone being stunned by the information they heard in this closed-door meeting with u.n. ambassador susan rice. they are significantly troubled they say, more than that ev

carolina, and ayotte from new hampshire, met with u.n. ambassador susan rice today. remember ambassador rice misled the world how christopher stevens was murdered in benghazi on 9-11. the senators wanted to hear her explanation because she might be nominated as secretary of state. the meeting did not go well because the issue of initially ignoring the terrorist involvement was not explained by dr. rice. >> as i understand it, the explanation is that that was being withheld, the al-qaeda involvement was -- that point of the talking points was being withheld for classified reasons, but i also explored didn't you question that because that left, if you were to omit that portion, it leaves a very different impression to the american people and frankly, i didn't get a satisfactory answer to that. >> bill: joining us from washington to react, fox news analyst charles krauthammer. so bigger mess now than it's ever been. here is my assessment based on what happened today. i'm going to go on the record. this is what i think is going to happen and you can tell me if i'm right or wrong in your i t

had hoped. senators mccain, ayotte and graham say they have more questions than they had before rice's comments about benghazi. >> we are significantly troubled by many of the answers that we got and some that we didn't get it. >> if you don't know what happened just say you don't know what happened. people can push you to give explanations and you can say i don't want to give bad information. >> that's troubling to me as well, why she wouldn't have asked, i'm the person that doesn't know anything about this, i'm going on every single show. >> joining me now for our daily fix, chris cizilla, msnbc contributor managing editor of post politics.com and our own nbc capitol hill correspondent kelly o'donnell. well, this was pretty tense. chris, first to you. you've seen a lot of confirmation battles. this really did seem like an escalation, a warning shot. >> maybe they come out of this and say, look, we still kind of disagree with the way this played out but the explanations that ambassador rice gave us helped us understand. instead, what we got coming out of it was, as you point ou

critics? lindsey graham and senator kelly ayotte. she has said not only does she want sufficient explanation, she wants to see documentation as well. she's working from memos and talking points from the intelligence community, let's see them. we'll see what happens after this meeting today. laura. >> we will. thank you very much. >>> it is 5:42. republicans on capitol hill may be willing to back off an old pledge not to raise taxes to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff. some prominent republican senators, who were dead set against tax hikes, may consider other alternatives. gop senator bob corker has a ten-year, $4.5 billion proposal that hits the wealthiest, but it also curbs social security and medicare benefits. so far he's not garnered any democratic support. >> you don't raise rates, you just cap the amount of itemized deductions that taxpayers -- it hits the wealthy. >> there's going to come a point in time where we can't borrow any more money and interest rates are going to skyrocket. >> this congress is one vote away from avoiding the fiscal cliff. >> if a budget deal is no

benghazi attack. senator john mccain, lindsey graham, kelly ayotte of new hampshire met privately with her today. it did not go well. listen. >> bottom line, i'm more disturbed now than i was before. information given the american people was wrong. ambassador rice said it was wrong and to be clear, if you are an ambassador to the united nations you go well beyond the unclassified talking points in the daily preparation for that job. >> we are significantly troubled by the answers that many got. some we didn't get. >> she had no intention to mislead the american people. >> the white house blames the critics. listen. >> the focus on some might say the obsession on comments made on sunday shows seems to me and to many to be misplaced. >> the national shows get too much attention. are you surprised that ambassador rice didn't have a better explanation for her interview? >> dana: i got home last night and checked e-mail for the last time and saw she will have a meeting. i said they have it wrapped up. go in and smooth it over. you should have these things organized before you go to a m

john mccain, lindsey graham and kelly ayotte after their meeting with ambassador rice. >> we are significantly troubled by many of the answers that we got. >> bottom line, i'm more dist b disturbed now than before. >> i'm more troubled today. >> senator mccain's embarrassing past with libya includes a meeting in tripoli in 2009 with gadhafi to discuss the possible delivery of military equipment to that dictator at his side at that meeting, as usual of course, was lindsey graham. also joining him was senator joe lieberman. today sh after meeting with ambassador rice, joe lieberman chose not to join the baseless criticism of ambassador rice. >> based on what she has said as clearly as possible, backed up by the director of the cia, i think it wouldn't be fair to disqualify her based on what she said. >> ambassador rice released this statement after meeting with the republican senators. while we certainly wish we had perfect information just days after the terrorist attack, the intelligence assessment has evolved. we stressed that neither i nor anyone else in the administration inte

mccain, lindsey graham, kelly ayotte. she will be back up there today to meet with other senators. the deadline from yesterday's meetings is that those three are still not satisfied. kelly ayotte says she will try to block the conversation of susan rice or another nominee to succeed the departing secretary of state clinton until more information is given on the benghazi attacks in libya. also, france to go in favor of bid.tinians's u.n. the french government said it would vote in favor of the palestinians ' bid of non- member status. how would you fix your school system? we have a couple minutes left. larry in jackson, mississippi, independent. caller: good morning. newly appointed superintendent, i met with yesterday. we have 30,000 students and 2000 are homeless. 70% of our schools in the city, i visited alternative schools where we had the bus driver and security guards running the alternative schools. we have teachers who are failing these students and failed those students' parents and grandparents. they've been in the school system's 25 for 30 years. we accept this. we fired a co

discuss the incidents with senators john mccain, lindsey graham and kelly ayotte. rice initially blamed them on protests triggered by an anti-muslim film. the man behind that movie is speaking out about the backlash for the first time. he tells "the new york times" he has no regrets. he's back in prison after violating his probation on a bank fraud conviction. >>> new york city mayor bloomberg is asking congress for $9.8 billion to clean up the mess left behind by hurricane sandy. bloomberg says the cash is needed to pay for costs not covered by fema and insurance companies. wolf. >> thank you. >>> coming up we told you about a town in california mired in corruption charges that left taxpayers outraged. a town where the former police chief finagled a salary for himself of nearly half a million dollars. you won't believe what that former police chief is doing now. he wants more money from the city. we're keeping them honest, next. [ male announcer ] this is steve. he loves risk. but whether he's climbing everest, scuba diving the great barrier reef with sharks, or jumping into the

ayotte and their crusade against susan rice yesterday. dave writes in -- >> bill: yesterday. it has been on-going. >> yesterday they put themselves out in front of the camera again. dave says mccain and graham have backed themselves into a corner. if they back off now, they would lose more face than they already have. pat says mccain, graham, shut your damn mouths. quit compromising american security. >> yes. >> honey bear kelly who has the best name on twitter says -- we were saying one of the issues -- >> bill: is that honey bear kelly ayotte? >> no. not honey bear kelly ayotte. we were saying one of the issues would be if obama was to appoint john kerry then scott brown might weasel his way back into the senate. honey bear kelly says scott brown just lost an election. does anyone think he can win one now? that's a valid point. he's a loser. >> bill: what do you think of the campaign against susan rice? >> i have found it incredibly offensive. you are talking about a rhodes scholar, somebody who has 20 plus years in the diplomatic corps. also what that person tweeted. we're in the

of her most outspoken critics, republican senators john mccain, lindsey graham, and kelly ayotte to set the record straight. rice had gone on five sunday talk shows days after the attack and called it a spontaneous demonstration sparked by an antimuslim film and did not mention the link to al qaeda. after all this taking on her critics, the republican senators weren't impressed. >> bottom line, i'm more dist b disturbed now than i was before that the 16 september explanation about how four americans died in benghazi, libya, by ambassador rice, i think does not do justice to the reality at the time and in hindsight clearly was completely wrong. >> rice maintains she did nothing wrong. issuing a statement saying we stressed that neither i nor anyone else in the administration intended to mislead the american people at any stage of this process. peter brooks is a former deputy assistant secretary of defense, general wesly clark and, of course, former democratic presidential candidate. senator mccain was asked who do you blame more at this point? ambassador rice or president obama? he s

argument being made by mccain, by lindsey graham, and by senator ayotte of new hampshire is that this ambassador to the u.n. went on all the national shows, including "meet the press," in mid-september and basically tried to delay the news because it would get out eventually, that it was al qaeda that launched this attack. does that pass the smell test? that somebody would knowingly do that knowing the truth would be coming out in a matter of days? >> they still don't know who was responsible. there are links to al qaeda, they say, but links is a broad word. those links can take many forms. i think this is all a political red herrings. >> you're with tom ricks on this one. >> the main question is why was the consulate in benghazi still open when the administration, when even the ambassador acknowledged that the threats against the united states was rising and security was -- >> and the answer could be we had cia agents in that area -- >> absolutely. >> -- that needed to be protected. ambassador susan rice met with her strongest critics on capitol hill today to answer questions about b

sounded interesting from senator ayotte is that based on her comments, she seemed more concerned about what she heard from the acting c.i.a. director, mike morrell than -- she named him first and susan rice was almost an afterthought. i wonder if that was what was disturbing to senator ayotte or any of the other senators. >> eliot: that might be more legitimate although the c.i.a. if you listen to david petraeus said we knew this was not a spontaneous revolt or spontaneous eruption and therefore our information -- look, this will continue for some period of time. let's switch gears a little bit to what's going on in egypt. which seems to be sort of gripping us at an international level. morsi on one day is a hero. he's brokered a deal. the second day he's under assault by the very people in the street who swept him into power. how do you assess what's going on and our capacity to nudge him toward maintaining a democratic framework? >> the nudging is being done by members of the international monetary fund and individuals saying to egypt if you want money for your country to thriv

her harshest gop critics. those senators, john mccain, lindsey graham, kelly ayotte, were not satisfied, they said, with the ambassador's explanation for her comments following the benghazi consulate attack. cnn foreign affairs reporter elise labott has more details for us. she's in washington, d.c. this morning. elise, good morning. >> hey, soledad. well, what came out in those meetings and why senators say they're even more concerned, centers around the information that the cia had just after the attack about possible involvement in the benghazi attack that killed ambassador chris stevens and those three other americans. now, ambassador rice did not make reference to this information in her talk show appearances. the unclassified talking points she used were provided by the cia, were stripped of these references to al qaeda, because the information was classified and couldn't be delivered in public. now, after the meeting, ambassador rice acknowledged those talking points turned out to be incorrect. but that she stressed she and the administration never meant to mislead the